TRENTON — A city police officer was suspended without pay Wednesday after a photo circulated on the Internet showing him asleep in his cruiser.

Officer Richard Takach, a 12-year veteran of the Trenton Police Department, was caught snoozing by a passerby.

It was unclear whether Takach was on duty or working a side job when the photo was taken. Either way, said Police Director Ralph Rivera Jr., “this is a safety issue to the public and to himself and we have suspended him without pay,” pending a hearing on Monday.

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“This is just unacceptable, and I am not pleased with this situation at all,” he continued.

The director said having a sleeping officer wearing a uniform, in a marked vehicle and carrying a gun, “is dangerous to the city whether the officer is working or not.”

Police sources said Takach worked a side job starting noon Tuesday, and clocked out at 5 p.m. He worked his scheduled patrol duty from 5 p.m, to 3 a.m., and then started another side job at 3 a.m. He was still working the side job when he was suspended at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.

“He was working for more than 26 hours straight, and he would have completed his entire shift had he not been suspended,” said a source who requested anonymity.

Takach’s attorney, Stuart Alterman, said he was outraged by the lack of investigation, and the suspension.

“This is a very harsh and Draconian response,” he said.

The attorney, who represents officers in PBA Local 11, said his client was “not on city time” when he was sleeping.

Alterman said his client needs to work additional hours, citing increased standard of living expenses and a diminishing pay rate.

“To suspend a police officer when there are already less police officers working on the force is a danger to society and just doesn’t make sense,” he said.

Alterman was referring to the firing of more than 100 officers last year as the city faced budget problems.

“My client is representative of a force that is overworked, spread out too thin and not well rested overall,” said Alterman.

Side jobs, or overtime non-city paid jobs, are typically given to Trenton officers who want to increase their salary with overtime pay. Private companies pay the city to hire officers to man construction sites, for example.

According to Rivera, a larger investigation into when and why Takach was sleeping while dressed in uniform and in a patrol vehicle will be conducted.

Efforts to reach the person who posted the photo on the Internet were unsuccessful.